The democratically elected Children’s Champion for the borough of Rochdale 2016 – 17 was Hannah Nazir and the Deputy was Madeleine Bamford. They, with the support of Rochdale Borough Children’s Council, put together a manifesto with 3 campaign points and worked hard over their term of office to improve services and lives for local children. Here is what Hannah and Madeleine want you to know about what they did over the year: Hannah: I had 3 campaign points and these have made up the manifesto for the Children’s Council for the last year. These were: To get more children...

On Tuesday 4th July, Hannah Nazir reached the end of her term of office and handed the medal over to the new democratically elected Children’s Champion for the borough of Rochdale. Madeleine Bamford, the deputy Children’s Champion, also handed her position over. After going through the process of applying for the position, being shortlisted by children’s council members and attending an interview, the 6 candidates made the fantastic achievement of making it through to the elections. The candidates were: Aiyla Abbas – Marland Hill CPS David Almond – Caldershaw Primary School George Holt – Littleborough CPS Imogen Bramwell –...

http://rochdaleyouthvoice.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Children-Champion-Approval-2.mp4 The Rochdale borough Children’s Champion democratic elections are now taking place in primary schools across Rochdale, Heywood, Middleton and the Pennines! After receiving 64 applications this year, the current Children’s Champion (Hannah Nazir), Deputy (Madeleine Bamford) and members of the Children’s Council had the challenge of shortlisting them down to 20 by reading all applications and choosing the best ones with realistic campaigns to work on. The 20 shortlisted applicants then came to an interview day at Matthew Moss Youth Centre and gave a 1 minute presentation to the interview panel to introduce themselves and say 3 issues...

See what the Rochdale Borough Youth Cabinet, Children’s Council, Young Carers Forum and Children in Care Council got up to over last term! Download the exciting report here: RYS Youth Voice Termly Report Winter 2017 Tweet Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Like this:Like...

One of the most commonly raised issues by young people across the borough of Rochdale, the North West of England and the whole of the UK over the past few years is mental health awareness and the quality, accessibility and knowledge of services for young people. Due to it being raised more and more, one of our former MYPs, Leon Hollinrake, started an on going campaign to tackle the stigma attached to mental health issues, raise awareness of how common it is and improve support and services available to young people in Rochdale. As part of this campaign, the Youth Cabinet met...

Rochdale Borough Youth Cabinet Minutes Date of Meeting: Thurs 16th March 2017 Time From To 18:00 20:00 Venue: Matthew Moss Youth Centre AGENDA ITEM Item ACTION 1 Welcome 1.1 All members welcomed by the new chair and MYP, Sarah Mahmood. AM mentioned few apologies sent. None 2 Updates 2.1 Louis – got concussion earlier in the week after a bang! Starting to come round form it now. Louis and Sarah – were interviewed at school today for the BBC school report and all went well! They will keep an eye out for the link...

Rochdale Borough’s Children in Care Council, the Listen Up group, want to find out if cared for children, young people and care leavers across Rochdale borough feel that they get to participate in decisions which are important to them. The theme of the next Corporate Parenting Board meeting on the 16th March is participation and therefore, this is a good opportunity to let people know if children and young people cared for in Rochdale borough feel involved in decisions made about them and services provided for them. If you are a care leaver or a child/young person in care, please share your thoughts around...

On Wednesday 15th February, the results of the democratic Member of UK Youth Parliament (MYP) Elections for the Rochdale Borough were anno0unced at Rochdale Town Hall. Tabitha Rusden, the former MYP and Amelia Betham, the former Deputy MYP, handed the medals over to the new Deputy, Louis Tweedale, and the new MYP, Sarah Mahmood, both from Hollingworth Academy. Hannah Nazir and Madeleine Bamford, the current Children’s Champion and Deputy, hosted the event and special guests including the Mayor, Gail Hopper (the director of children’s services), councillor Donna Martin and Councillor Janet Emsley, were also at the event and said some...

Want to know more about what the Member of UK Youth Parliament for the borough of Rochdale, Rochdale Borough Youth Cabinet, Children’s Council and Children in Care Council have been up to recently? Take a look at our termly report from October to December2016 to find out in more detail!RYS Youth Voice Termly Report Autumn 16 Tweet Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Like this:Like...

Rochdale Borough Youth Cabinet, run by Rochdale Youth Service, meet fortnightly and is chaired by the Member of UK Youth Parliament (MYP) for the Borough of Rochdale. They discuss issues young people face across the borough and take action to improve the lives of young people and make sure their voices are being heard. Please see below for the minutes of our last meeting: Rochdale Borough Youth Cabinet Minutes Date of Meeting: Thurs 5th January 2017 Time From To 18:00 20:00 Venue: Council Chambers, Rochdale Town Hall AGENDA ITEM Item 1 Welcome 1.1 All members welcomed and wished a happy new year. AM mentioned few apologies sent. 2 Updates 2.1 Tabitha – been away to Amsterdam and had a wonderful time! Sarah – been on a 2 week pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and learned a lot from it. Fantastic experience which has made her reflect quite a lot. Most other YP just had a lovely Christmas and new year and enjoyed the break! 3 Young Inspectors 3.1 3.2 HM informed the group what exactly the young inspectors do. RBSCB want us to go and inspect some of their services next week. YP who have already attended the training and have experience in inspection will be meeting next week with Alyson, discussing what they will be doing, going through the questions and...

The ‘Listen Up’ group is the Children in Care Council for the Borough of Rochdale. They meet fortnightly to discuss issues and work together with the Corporate Parenting Board (CPB) to make changes and improvements to the care system in Rochdale borough. As part of this, Listen Up feels it is important to get the views of other cared for children and young people across the borough of Rochdale. The theme of the next CPB is Safeguarding and Listen Up would like to find out more about the safeguarding experiences cared for children and have come up with the questionnaire. If you are a cared...

Tabitha Rusden is the current Member of UK Youth Parliament (MYP) for the Borough of Rochdale and her term of office will end on 28th February 2017. So, who will take her place? Young people from across the borough applied to be the next MYP and on Thursday 8th December applicants attended an interview, during which they were observed by members of Rochdale Borough Youth Cabinet and young people from other youth groups. They took part in some team activities including a mannequin challenge, art tasks, a murder mystery and planning a campaign against hate crime relating to gender,...

In the national Make Your Mark consultation 5570 young people from across the Rochdale Borough voted which issues were affecting them the most. The local results are slightly different to the national results and the top 3 issues voted in Rochdale are: Transport – make public transport cheaper, better and accessible for all. Tackling racist and religious discrimination, particularly against people who are Muslim or Jewish – all young people should work together to combat racism and other forms of discrimination, and ensure we know the dangers of such hatred. Raising awareness of sexual harassment in schools – let’s...

Make your mark is a national campaign that all young people participate in. It is a a 10 issue ballot paper that young people tick one to be an important issue. The top 3 are then debated on in house of commons between MYP’S and then made to be a national campaign. It gets all young people involved and brings schools involved. you are eligible to sign up by the website or encourage schools and other young people to sign up so more young people have a say in the Rochdale borough. Tweet Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Like this:Like...

AGENDA ITEM Item ACTION 1 Welcome 1.1 All members welcomed and AM mentioned few apologies sent. None 2 Updates 2.1 Iqra – busy with uni work and the steering group for YoFo. Recently wrote a blog for Public Health England to be published soon. Ran a workshop on racism and discrimination in the NW where people shared experiences. Starts uni placement on Monday. Kiran – Been on an eventful trip to London and busy with uni. Fariss – has done lots of sleeping, GMYA, learned how to kit and has a temporary Christmas job. Jakob – helps a dance group by doing the lights and sound and attended GMYA today. Tobi – introduced herself and said a bit about her hobbies, which school she attends and what she is interested in. None 3 Question Time 3.1 HM informed the group what exactly the Question Time event is, how it will be ran, what they will be debating on and how they can be involved. The event is on Tuesday 8th November, 18:30 at Matthew Moss Youth Centre and will be hosted by RBYC with MYP chairing the event. The group discussed the issues arising from the local Make Your Mark results, who else to invite to the event and when to plan it. The group will meet up at MMYC on...

Want to know more about what the Member of UK Youth Parliament for the borough of Rochdale, Rochdale Borough Youth Cabinet, Children’s Council and Children in Care Council have been up to recently? Take a look at our termly report from July to September 2016 to find out in more detail! rys-youth-voice-termly-report-summer16 Tweet Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Like this:Like...

Rochdale Borough Children’s Council (RBCC) are working to make life better for children across the borough, whilst also having some great fun! The Children’s Champion and Deputy have some exciting events coming up including the opening of the Rochdale Literature and Ideas Festival, the switching on of the Christmas lights with the MYP, speaking at the Mayor’s Youth Awards, interviewing MYP candidates and attending a local Question Time event. Over summer they led some fundraising events including a fun run around Hollingworth Lake and sponging youth workers and performed on stage at the Music in the Park event. They are working...

Young people between the ages of 11 and 17 have now applied to be the next Member of UK Youth Parliament (MYP) for the Borough of Rochdale. All those who have applied will be attending an interview on Thursday 8th December, where they will be observed by young people to see how good they are at communicating, teamwork, leadership and speaking. Each candidate will give a 1 minute speech about why they want to be the next MYP and what they would have on their manifesto if they got elected. All young people at the interview, including the candidates themselves,...

The former Rochdale Borough children’s Champion, Zara Shah, was keen to campaign to stop adults smoking around children. Zara met with Rochdale’ Smoking Cessation Team and discussed how they could work together to tackle this issue of passive smoking. They agreed to do a ‘no smoking poster competition’ and every primary school across the borough was given the opportunity to allow their students to take part and design a poster which would encourage adults to quit smoking, or at least stop smoking around children. 237 posters were returned to Rochdale Youth Service! Lisa Barker and Ve Nutter from...